ON-FARM PHENOTYPICCHARACTERIZATIONOF HARARGHE HIGHLAND SHEEP,BREEDING AND HUSBANDRY PRACTICES OF THE COMMUNITIES INEAST HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

The study was conducted in three districts ofEast Hararghe Zones, to phenotypically characterize sheep types of East Hararghe Zone under farmer management conditions, and to identify farmers' preference for breeding objective traits. Itinvolved both qualitative and quantitative types of research. A total of 150 indigenous sheep-owning farmers were selected for the survey and only mature 450 sheep (150 male and 300 non-pregnant females) were taken for a qualitative and quantitative study. Descriptive statistics, frequency procedures, general linear model, and multivariate analysis were used with JMP Pro 16.20 to analyze the data. The study result revealed that the mean flock size of sheep holding per household was 5.14 ± 0.31, 4.8 ± 0.31and 4.06 ± 0.31 for Badeno,Fades, andGoro-gutudistricts respectively. Households of the respondents reported that the primary reason for keeping sheep in the study area was to generate income followed by saving. The major sheep production constraints in the study area were feed shortage followed by Disease. The overall average age at first mating in males was 6.43 ± 0.09, while for females was6.74 ± 0.108 months. Age at first lambing was12.83 ± 0.17 months, and the lambing interval of ewes was6.76 ± 0.09.Thereproductive life span of ewes and the average number of lambing per ewe’slifetime was8.25 ± 0.24years and 13.4 ± 0.06 lambs and litter size was1.3 ± 0.093head.Large body size (appearance), coat colour, and tail type for both sexare the most preferred traits in the study area. The result of the study showed that the dominant coat colour pattern in the sampled male and female populations was plain while the most observed coat colour type was light brown followed by light brown with a white patch. The sex of animals had a significant effect on all of the body measurements. District effect was not significant (p>0.05) for most of the body measurements except Body weight. The age of sheep hada significant effect on most of the body measurements. For males, the correlation coefficients varied from -0.36 (between EL and RL) to 0.69 (BW and HG); while for females, the corresponding values ranged from -0.12 (between EL and BL) to 0.74 (between BW and HG). In PCA, an eigenvalue greater than 1 indicates that PC accounts for more of the variance than one of the original variables in standardized data. For females, the first eigenvalue accounts for about 26.73% of the variation followed by 9.30% of the variation,while for male the first eigenvalue account for 26.64% and the second for 9.13% of the variation. This study concludes that the result from morphological trait and multivariate analysis confirmed the existence of one pop in the Study Area.